Usability toilet cubicles

Strange as it may sound, but it really goes about the usability of the toilet stall.

The purpose of the article is to stretch your brains a little.

Now many are talking about usability. But not many seriously think about it.
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“I’ll make a hanging out panel on my website.” After all, this is ... how is it ... usable!

But now I want to talk not about web interfaces and generally not about interfaces, but about the device of the toilet cubicle.

Preamble

Imagine:

Vanya (programmer) went to the toilet. Doors in all cabins are closed. But he really needs a lot!
"Surely there is a free booth," he thinks.

Petr Petrovich (director) only from the airport, blithely sitting in a booth, does not touch anyone. Reads quarterly report. He does not even realize that he forgot to close the door.

Vanya jerks open the door, and here ...

- Um ... Hello, Peter Petrovich! How did you fly?
- Yes, everything is fine, Vanya! Let's talk in 15 minutes in my office.

Awkward? Awkward. But Van is still very “necessary”!
Or it was not Vanya at all, but a cleaner, whose schedule, which is necessary right now to clean up here.
I agree, almost everyone, almost always deliberately lock the door. But what if not?

Another case:

Petr Petrovich only from the airport, sits carelessly in a stall, does not touch anyone. Reads quarterly report. The door seems to be (this time) closed.

And then the pen begins to slowly go down ... (“Is it closed ?!” - Petr Petrovich thinks in cold sweat).

The handle reaches the bottom ... Then someone starts pulling the door ("Fuh, still closed"), and finally making sure of the status "occupied", the stranger on the other side leaves the door alone.

Maybe this stranger did not want to disturb busy Peter Petrovich at all. Just go outside and figure it out - free or busy!

Such is the premise. Let's find a way out, preserve the honor / nerves of Peter Petrovich and the work of Vanya!

Formulation of the problem

Before you solve a problem, you need to formulate it. So, the tasks are “human”:

Save the honor and nerves of Peter Petrovich
Save work Van

We translate these goals into more generalized ones:

The person outside should be easy to understand - freely in the booth or not
The man inside must be safe ...
... and he should know about it

Competitor Analysis

As in any other case, you should start with a study of existing solutions (or competitors).

№1: zaborom zaborochki

The cheapest and the most angry solution:

The door is ajar and inside no one means free.
The door is closed - probably busy.

Cheap, no additional problems at all. It is only necessary to teach all toilet users :

close the door when they go to the toilet
and open them up when they go out.

And this is not so easy as it seems. Let's look through the prism of our goals:

The person outside should be easy to understand - freely in the booth or not	This is true only when the door is ajar. And if someone came out and shut the door? “So is there anyone here or not?” - Vanya is at a loss.
The man inside must be safe ...	Again, the user could go in, close the door, but not lock it.
... and he should know about it	How can you find out now? Unless to double-check the "locked" door. And if you do not think about it?

As we see, there is something here, in this decision, but for the time being it is damp, damp.

No. 2: Let there be light!

I do not know who this seems like a good idea, but there is such an option - the light switch in the booth is located next to the door handle, outside. What should kind of hint Vanya: "The light is on - do not go, busy! Off - go, free. "

But suddenly someone came out, closed the door and did not turn off the light? (intentionally or accidentally). Or maybe someone likes to do their thing in the dark? In general, this solution is practically useless, so I will not dwell on it.